PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 7h 
to ask you, sir, to accept this simple token of the esteem in which 
you are held by the Council and Fellows of this Society, and of 
their appreciation of the valuable assistance you have rendered so 
kindly and continuously. We hope that you will often call back 
the pleasure with which we have co-operated together, and that 
your children after you may preserve this little token, not alone 
for its intrinsic value, but as a record of the feeling of which we 
offer it to you as some expression. 
Mr. Burr, in responding, said he had never supposed that the 
services which he had rendered were to be rewarded by so sub- 
stantial and elegant a testimonial. Hevhad only been influenced 
by the same earnest desire to attain the Charter which animated 
the President and every member of the Council ; but as a profes- 
sional man his labours appeared more prominent than those of 
other gentlemen. He could truly say that he should have felt 
amply rewarded for his part of the work by a simple vote of 
thanks. The merits of the Society were quite sufficient in them- 
selves, when properly represented, to command the grant of the 
Charter and the only thing he could take any credit for was the 
personal attention he had given to the matter. He sincerely 
congratulated the Society upon the possession of the Charter, and 
trusted that it would afford the members a better status in the 
scientific world, and give a renewed impetus to their researches. 
Personally, he was deeply indebted to them for the very handsome 
present, and he trusted that it would continue to be regarded b 
his children with the same gratification and pleasure as that with 
which he received it. 
The Prestpent remarked that, as the next meeting was to be 
special, it would afford a favorable opportunity of discussing 
certain revisions in the by-laws which were necessary in order to 
bring them into accordance with the Charter. Jor that reason 
only, he hoped that at the next meeting a great number of the 
members would endeavour to be present ; the Council were also 
taking steps to obtain the signatures of every Fellow of the Society, 
in a book provided for that purpose. The absence of their old 
and well-remembered friend, Mr. Beck, should urge upon the 
members the importance of this duty. 
In reply to questions, the President said that the attention of the 
Council had already been directed to the absence from the Journal 
of the Society of a report of the meeting of the 
The Prestpen? urged upon the members the desirability of 
communicating to the Assistant-Secretary their full names, titles 
and addresses, together with the initials of learned societies, &c. 
In appealing for the contribution of papers to be read at the 
meetings, he referred to the necessity of their being sent in a few 
weeks before the time they were intended to be read. The 
advantages to the writers would be fully equal to those thus con- 
ferred upon the Society. Announcement could also be made 
from meeting to meeting that particular papers were to be read, 
and this would doubtless haye great effect in inducing the attend- 
